Status effects are beneficial or harmful conditions that affect your Guardians or opponents in battle. These effects are triggered by core abilities, special actions, and talents. These effects result in a variety of buffs or debuffs, many of which can stack.
Buffs display around Guardians' and opponents’ health bars depending on what kind of effect it causes. These will appear at different times over the course of the encounter.
Status Effect Terminology
Stack: An effect may have the ability to add onto itself, or "stack." This causes the effect to multiply, granting an even greater buff or debuff. These are displayed as:
Buff: This describes a generally positive effect, usually placed on yourself or your teammates. These can range anywhere from a focus buff that increases your focus attribute to a healing effect over time. For example, Belle’s core ability Enchanting Defense grants all party members a 10% defense buff for the duration of the encounter.
Debuff: This describes a generally negative effect, usually placed on your opponent. Debuffs may reduce your attributes, block you from healing, or cause a stun to cease any and all actions for that Guardian. For example, Oogie Boogie’s talent Black Widow Charm causes targets to be attack blocked for a short period of time, keeping them from gaining any attack buffs for the duration.
Active: This describes an effect that is currently affecting your Guardian. Active effects have a start and end time. For example, Sulley’s special ability Ground Pound has a 30% chance to stun all enemies for 3 seconds. The debuff is considered active during that time.
Block: A block effect means you cannot be affected by certain types of status effects. For example, Scar's special ability Long Live the King inflicts a heal block for as long as the target has a wound. The target is blocked from healing as long as it has a wound.
Viewing Buffs & Debuffs During Combat
Tapping the eye icon in the bottom-left of the combat screen during any encounter will allow you to learn more about which status effects are currently in play. This feature will pause the game and can be toggled on and off.
Tap on any Guardian or opponent in order to view more information.